Sean Hannity and Dick Morris were busy swapping conspiracy theories on last night’s (10/5/09) Hannity. First, they traded baseless speculation about why Obama went to Copenhagen. Morris followed that up with his thoughts on the G20 summit which he characterized as “the first step in repealing the Declaration of Independence.” His explanation had to with them imposing their “socialistic principles” on us and somehow that was also the driving force behind health care reform. Maybe you can follow his argument. I could not. With video.

Hannity, up in arms last week that President Obama was (supposedly) putting the Olympics ahead of Afghanistan, did exactly that, himself, on his television show last night (10/5/09), except that Hannity made attacking Obama about the Olympics a priority over Afghanistan. I have yet to see a Hannity segment fully discuss the situation in Afghanistan. I’ve seen no discussion about the disputed elections, what the military can and cannot be expected to accomplish there, not even a segment explaining why the war is so necessary for defeating terrorism. Yet Hannity has made plenty of time to discuss the Olympics. Last night was at least the thirdsegment on the subject. A brief discussion on Afghanistan came later in the show.

Hannity began the segment by characterizing the decision of the International Olympics Committee not to hold those “unimportant” Olympics in Chicago Obama’s “most glaring failure on the world stage.”

Then Hannity segued into blaming Obama for losing the Olympics (via his “apology tour”). “If you ask me,” Hannity said to guest Morris, “(Obama) does not make the U.S. sound like such a great place, certainly not somewhere where anybody would want to come and celebrate the Olympic games.” I guess Hannity’s own attacks on Chicago didn’t count.

“Here’s now the conspiratorial side of me and you can talk me off the ledge if you want,” Hannity said. I’m tempted to say something snarky but I’m pro-life for all people who are actually born, even Hannity.

“So, he has all these friends in Chicago, we have a lot of unanswered questions about his connections in Chicago, they know him best. Why do I think in the back of my mind that he didn’t want to anger Mayor Daley and people that knew him best.”

In fact, as Media Matters has noted, Obama has never been close to Mayor Daley. A Chicago Tribune article reported that they are “cordial, not close.” The article also states, “Through most of Obama's political career in Chicago he operated on the fringes of the political machine and never fully immersed himself in the belly of its operations. Obama's message of inclusion, his attention to the plight of the less fortunate, and his personal sense of morality—these aspects of Obama's character made him a favorite among reformers such as the former federal judge Abner Mikva and Cook County commissioner Forrest Claypool. Even though he was a state legislator from the city, Obama made sure to maintain a safe distance from Mayor Richard M. Daley and his cronies.”

But Hannity was not about to let the facts stand in the way of a good smear.

“I have a different Machiavellian view,” Morris offered. “His favorability is up to 52 now from 48. I think there’s an American sentiment of ‘rally around the president’ when he’s insulted abroad… I think that may have been in his mind.”

But Morris didn’t stop there. It wasn’t the IOC that he was concerned about, he said, it was the G20. “The United States signed over its economic sovereignty to 20 nations, which include the likes of Argentina and Brazil and South Africa and Saudi Arabia and Russia and China, of course… This is the opening step in repealing the Declaration of Independence. It’s gonna put us in the same position as the European nations, of being subservient to the European Union and in turn to the IMF.”

Even Hannity didn’t seem convinced. But he wasn’t about to turn down the chance at such a fantastic smear. “Do you really believe he’d compromise our sovereignty?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Morris said. He added that Obama believes in “one world government” and “coordination.” As he saw it, Europe wants to bring the US (presumably with Obama’s help) into their system “so they can impose their socialistic principles of guaranteed vacation, maximum work weeks, force you to blend in in this global community, high tax rates” and “that’s one of the things that’s behind this… health care reform, to make us like the rest of the world so they can do their way in Europe without the U.S. getting a competitive advantage.”

Once again, that seemed too much for Hannity to endorse. He quickly changed the subject to health care reform legislation.

“First of all, we’re losing,” Morris said, meaning that public opinion on the legislation had risen from 41 to 46% and that Obama’s approval ratings had gone from 48 to 52%. He ended with an overt fundraising pitch for ads against the legislation. Urging readers to go to the website (which I refuse to promote by naming), Morris added, “I am helping to put 10-second ads on in Arkansas and Maine (targeting Senators Blanche Lincoln and Olympia Snowe). Every ten minutes, I want that ad on so that they eat it and breathe it and absorb it.”